Romania, impressive victory over Portugal, in the race to the World Championship! With Mihai Silvășan disqualified before the break, the tricolors performed excellently

On Monday, March 2, the Pitesti Arena hosted the match between Romania and Portugal in the first phase of the preliminaries for the 2027 World Basketball Championship. The tricolors started the game with a different defensive intensity and a well-established tactical plan.

Romania was left without Mihai Silvășan, the head coach, who was disqualified

Romania threw excellently from a distance, especially Mihai Măciucă and Daron Russellwhile the Lusitanians exploited the spaces left by the opposing defense and often scored from half-distance, managing to dominate the recovery battle as well.

The hosts criticized the refereeing decisions in several situations, and Mihai Silvășan even managed to win a challenge at a given out for Portugal. Romania stayed in the match and kept the game balanced in the first half.

In the last minute before the break, with the score 49-49, after a miss by Nandor Kuti, Măciucă, frustrated, blocked Vladyslav Voytso. The referee immediately called an unsportsmanlike foul, at which point the head coach of the tricolors exploded and vehemently criticized the official.

He penalized him with a technical foul, something that intensified Silvășan's anger. The technician from Cluj swore at the referee, continued to criticize the manner in which he refereed and was sanctioned with a disqualifying foul.

The guests benefited from 5 free throws and entered the locker room with a 3-point advantage, 53-50and the last 21 minutes of the game were led by Ionuț Bâscoveanu, one of the second coaches of the national team.

Mihai Silvășan, disqualified before the break/Photo: fiba.basketball

Romania, excellent second half against Portugal

Silvășan stayed in the hall and watched his students from a distance, while Carmen Tocală, who sat in the first half with Mihai Covaliu, the president of the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee, moved behind the basket and experienced the match with great emotions.

The refs let the game loose again Romania won the third quarter 26-20, making many cuts, many baskets from inside the semicircle, with Emanuel Cățe in the foreground. Also, Măciucă, Russell and Dragoș Diculescu scored from outside the semicircle.

In the decisive act, in addition to Cățe, who played in juniors for Dinamo Bucharest, Kuti and Ștefan Grasu, the current leaders of the team from the Capital, stood out. On the other side, the pivot Ricardo Monteiro continued to cause problems, and Travante Williams, the former player of CSM Oradea, was unstoppable.

Romanian basketball players showed a lot of character, they played with ambition and every time they managed to get out of difficult moments. With maturity and courage, Cătălin Baciu, Bobe Nicolescu, Russell, Kuti, Cățe and Măciuca stood out in turn.

Nandor Kuti had a significant contribution to Romania's success/Photo: fiba.basketball

Daron Russell, decisive “triple” in the last 20 seconds of the match in Pitesti

With 30 seconds left, Diogo Ventura scored a “triple” through which Portugal took the lead: 95-96. After the time-out requested by Bâscoveanu, Kuti made a decisive pass to Russell, who scored from a distance and brought the score to 98-96.

The guests did not manage to turn the fate of the game around Romania prevailed 101-96, after some free throws made by Măciucă and Kuti. The tricolors exploded with joy, started to celebrate the victory in the middle of the field and called Silvășan to join them.

Romania's main scorers were Daron Russell (29 points, 6 assists), Mihai Măciucă (21 points), Emanuel Cățe (14 points, 9 rebounds) and Nandor Kuti (10 points, 5 assists).

On the other side, Travante Williams (33 points), Ricardo Monteiro (17 points, 5 rebounds) and Daniel Relvao (12 points) stood out.

53.12%was Romania's 3-point shooting percentage (17/32)

Mihai Măciucă scored 6 3-point baskets in the return game with Portugal/Photo: fiba.basketball

Due to this result, Romania reaches a record of 1-3 and remains in last place in group B of the preliminaries for the World Championshipbut still has a chance to qualify. The first 3 teams in the group qualify for the second phase of the preliminaries.

In the last stage of the first phase, Romania will play Greece at home (July 2) and Montenegro away (July 5).

Group B standings

Ranking of group B, with Romania in last place/Photo: fiba.basketball